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Topic: Horizontal Langstroth Hive (Read 658 times)

I've just read about a horizontal hive with frames and have fallen in love with the idea. Instead of having to lift various boxes off to get to the lower brood etc with these it seems you just lift the appropriate section's lid and bingo. All on one level and expansion is simply moving an end along and inserting new frames etc.

Are these types of hives suitable for Victoria? Do they have the same potential as the vertical stacked hives? Can the bees flourish in these? Has anyone any experience with these? etc etc

Assuming you intend to run it without supers, which is the point of course--to not lift boxes, you will find that to manage it effectively and get good honey yields requires more frequent intervention. Not more work, as you lift a lot less boxes, so it's really less work, but since the space is fixed you have to manage that space to keep them from swarming.

Thanks for responding - I don't mind work (at this stage I'm just beginning - the interest level is still monumentally high). These hives just seems more logical too me. Easy access/more flexible options. BTW I read what I could from your site. These hives seem to need very little ventilation (only the entrance). Would that be applicable to Melbourne, Australia as well or is the sort of thing I would need to test? Also, do you need to leave at least a beespace above the frames under the lid?

I had one of these that was 25 frames long. This was not long enough and either required constant manipulations or supering. With the supering the sides tended to bow. When the hive got big you had all bees at you when you opened any part, not nice.

I have changed it to a standard lang so I can super or under super and break it up when the population gets too big for manipulations then put it back together after. Much easier to handle.

Thnx for your response, Rob. That's the point, I think. With a follower board and presumably a long enough hive the actual size the bees occupy would change according to the needs. I'm not convinced yet you would need to manipulate this hive any more than a vertical one, and it seems to me it would be a lot easier(lighter). I'm but a newbeek, it's all logic and not experience for me. That's why I asked here. I take your experience onboard though.

It was worth a try in my opinion and was a good exercise for me but I have decided to standardise on hive type. Give it a go, any experience is good experience, and you my decide it is the way to go for you.

I would build it about four feet or so (whatever comes out even for lumber in your part of the world). Anything over five feed is hard to get them to use the space. Anything under four is really too short to manage well. I have just a top entrance at one end and it works well for ventilation.